zigurat667 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Evidence Of Other Universes May Have Been Found

Submitted by adeelarshad82 on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @06:03PM

adeelarshad82 writes: Scientists have no direct way to detect what, if anything, is beyond. However, one guess of what lies beyond is the theory of "eternal inflation." Eternal Inflation hypothesizes that our universe is just one fixture of a larger multiverse. The theory speculates that our universe as being a bubble that exists in a larger void among other self-contained universii. If this theory is true, cosmologists might expect to see "bruises" in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) where our universe bumped into others. According to a recent report from a team at the University College London, they may have discovered just that, and maybe even as many as four colossal brush-ups.

Submission + - Russia moots Nobel Prize for Wikileaks founder (hindustantimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @12:02PM

An anonymous reader writes: Russia on Wednesday suggested to help the jailed whistleblower website WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and nominate him for the coveted Nobel Prize by the NGOs. "Non-governmental and government organisations should think of ways to help him. Perhaps he could be awarded a Nobel Prize," unnamed
Kremlin sources were quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

Submission + - Apple's Topless Girl Ban Could Lead to Lawsuit (itworld.com)

Submitted by itwbennett on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @11:58AM

itwbennett writes: Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet is reportedly threatening to sue Apple for banning the newspaper's iPhone app from the iTunes App Store unless the paper removes photos of topless women. According to HyperOm, Ekstra Bladet features topless women on its page 9, something the paper has done for 35 years. 'I think it's madness. [Photo of the lady] is not pornographic or offensive in any way Page 9-girl is a part of Ekstra Bladet soul,' said Ekstra Bladet editor Poul Madsen.

Submission + - Free SQL Server IDE written in SQL

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @11:44AM

An anonymous reader writes: RelationalFramework.com is offering a cutting edge IDE for SQL Server; it's written entirely in SQL and it's now available for free on their site. Interesting concept, building applications entirely in SQL instead of Java or c# mixed with SQL. Giving away the IDE is a great way to expose developers to the power of fully relational web development.

Submission + - Giant Plasma Loop Arches Over The Sun's Surface (messagetoeagle.com)

Submitted by stargazer68 on Wednesday December 08, 2010 @11:35AM

stargazer68 writes: This incredibly huge plasma loop was photographed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

As you can see the Solar prominence (filament) is enormous! The portion visible today stretches more than 700,000 km–a full solar radius. It is an amazing sight!

Comment Re:Carmack Makes Other Valid Points (Score 2) 163

by zigurat667 on Tuesday December 07, 2010 @07:26AM (#34471622) Attached to: John Carmack Not Enthused About Android Marketplace

The touch screen interface problem is what makes me wonder why the hell Carmack is so eager about iPhone development. It just plainly sucks to control a game by moving the device. For a FPS you want to look at the screen from the same angle all the time, no matter how good the screen may be.

Tofu Activists Spoof Meat-Based Indie Game 420

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday December 02, 2010 @04:56AM from the have-a-burger-to-celebrate dept.

Faulkner39 writes "In response to the recently released independently developed platformer Super Meat Boy, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has released a Flash-based spoof game titled Super Tofu Boy. The spoof attempts to mirror the original by featuring a protagonist made of tofu and an antagonist made of meat in a statement promoting animal rights. Ironically, however, the original game is about a human boy who is vulnerable because he lacks skin (Meat Boy), raising the question: 'is the spoof in reality really about cannibalism?'" The Super Meat Boy team posted a response on their Twitter feed.

Comment Re:What is the basis for the suit? (Score 1) 172

by zigurat667 on Tuesday November 30, 2010 @10:50AM (#34388204) Attached to: Apple Sues Steve Jobs Figurine Maker Over Likeness

I was wondering if Apple might have trademarked a cartoonesque drawing of Steve Jobs, otherwise this kind of caricature/parody should be protected by the freedom of speech.

Combining Two Kinects To Make Better 3D Video 106

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday November 30, 2010 @07:35AM from the this-is-what-happens-when-yo dept.

suraj.sun sends this quote from Engadget about improving the Kinect 3D video recordings we discussed recently: "[Oliver Kreylos is] blowing minds and demonstrating that two Kinects can be paired and their output meshed — one basically filling in the gaps of the other. He found that the two do create some interference, the dotted IR pattern of one causing some holes and blotches in the other, but when the two are combined they basically help each other out and the results are quite impressive."

Submission + - North Korea attacks South Korea (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by qmaqdk on Tuesday November 23, 2010 @04:12AM

qmaqdk writes: Numerous news agencies report that North Korea has fired artillery at South Koreas Yeonpyeong Island, near the countries western sea border. At least 200 rounds of artillery hit after the North started firing about 2:30 p.m. local time, and several civilian and military personnel have been injured.

Is war avoidable at this point?

Submission + - IBM says software helps predict natural disasters (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie on Saturday October 23, 2010 @11:13PM

coondoggie writes: IBM says it has patented a natural disaster warning system, which uses analytic techniques that accurately and precisely conducts post-event analysis of seismic events, such as earthquakes, as well as provide early warnings for tsunamis, which can follow earthquakes. The invention also provides the ability to rapidly measure and analyze the damage zone of an earthquake to help prioritize emergency response needed following an earthquake.

2012 Mayan Calendar 'Doomsday' Date Might Be Wrong 144

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday October 19, 2010 @01:46PM from the 60-day-reprieve dept.

astroengine writes "A UC Santa Barbara associate professor is disputing the accuracy of the mesoamerican 'Long Count' calendar after highlighting several astronomical flaws in a correlation factor used to synchronize the ancient Mayan calendar with our modern Gregorian calendar. If proven to be correct, Gerardo Aldana may have nudged the infamous December 21, 2012 'End of the World' date out by at least 60 days. Unfortunately, even if the apocalypse is rescheduled, doomsday theorists will unlikely take note."

Nobel Prize in Physics For Discovery of Graphene 139

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday October 05, 2010 @12:11PM from the all-sorts-of-grats dept.

bugsbunnyak writes "The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded for the discovery of graphene to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. Graphene is a novel one-atom-thick lattice state of carbon which has demonstrated unique quantum mechanical properties. These properties derive in part from the 2-dimensional nature of the material: quantum interactions are constrained to the effectively planar dimension of the lattice. Graphene holds promise for physical applications including touch screens, light cells, and potentially solar panels. Geim becomes the first scientist to achieve a Nobel prize despite earlier winning the highly-coveted Ig Nobel in 2000 for his studies of diamagnetic levitation — also known as The Flying Frog." Slashdot originally mentioned the frog almost exactly 10 years ago.

HDCP Encryption/Decryption Code Released 225

Posted by timothy on Wednesday September 29, 2010 @08:06AM from the didn't-take-long dept.

rtj writes "We have released an open-source (BSD licensed) implementation of the HDCP encryption/decryption algorithms. The code includes the block cipher, stream cipher, and hashing algorithms necessary to perform an HDCP handshake and to encrypt or decrypt video. The code passes the test vectors provided in the HDCP specification and can encrypt video at a rate of about 180 640x480 frames/second on a 2.33GHz Intel Xeon CPU. This isn't quite fast enough to decrypt 1080p content in real-time on a single core, but decryption can be parallelized across multiple cores. There are also many opportunities for further optimisation, such as using SSE instructions. We are releasing the code in hopes that others will further optimize it and use it in their HDCP-related projects."

Promised Microsoft Tablet 'No Thicker Than Sheet of Glass' 352

Posted by timothy on Wednesday September 15, 2010 @02:06AM from the depends-how-thick-the-glass-is dept.

Barence writes Microsoft will deliver a touchscreen PC that is 'no thicker than a sheet of glass' within the next three years, according to the company's principal researcher. The device will be the next generation of Microsoft's Surface project, which currently houses a touchscreen PC in a deep cabinet that uses cameras to detect hand gestures and objects placed on the screen. According to Microsoft's Bill Buxton, 'Surface will become no thicker than a sheet of glass. It's not going to have any cameras or projectors because the cameras will be embedded in the device itself.' Microsoft is developing a new screen technology to make this possible. 'The best way to think about it is like a big LCD where there's a fourth pixel in every triad. So there's red, green, and blue pixels giving you light, and a fourth pixel which is a sensor that will capture stuff,' Buxton claims in an interview with The Globe and Mail."

Slashdot Top Deals